& once in a scene from the miniseries adaptation that I wouldn't have minded getting cut...

Here's Robert Aldrich's take on St. Elmo's fire illuminating the horns of cattle in 1961's The Last Sunset (the Oldboy of Westerns). It was based on Howard Rigsby's novel Sundown at Crazy Horse. I haven't read it, so I don't know if it includes an equivalent scene, sorry...

A recurring scene in a handful of Westerns (usually ones about an arduous trek) is the protagonists encountering St. Elmo's fire*

Here's a 🧵 about it

*a phenomenon where plasma makes certain things glow like lightning while inside of an electrical field. Look it up if you're confused